Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
I wanted to start off today by sharing a quick message that I received from Lea on Instagram: She said, “Hi! I found your podcast through the one you did with Shanda Fulbright. I’ve listened to a few episodes so far and am so excited to learn from you! I wish these were skills I had been taught growing up but they just weren’t. Better late than never!” Oh my gosh, Lea, I couldn’t agree more! I didn’t learn these until I was well into my forties, and I’m so thankful that my daughter learned them in middle school, thanks to Classical Conversations, the homeschool curriculum we’ve been a part of for 11 years now.
We love their focus on teaching students HOW to think, not just what to think. I absolutely love that each week, our daughter gets to interact with a class of other 10th graders and discuss the things they’re learning as they strive to search for truth & goodness in the subjects they’re working on. It’s so cool to be able to watch! If you’d like to know more, we have 2 free downloadable e-books for you! Just fill out the form at classicalconversations.com/gibbens and you’ll get them right away!
Ok, let’s dive into today’s new Fallacy: The Victim Fallacy. The Victim Fallacy happens when someone assumes that the cause of what they perceive to be a mistreatment is due to prejudice, like racism or sexism.
For example, let’s say Sarah gets a C in her math class. She complains to her friend, “Mr. Smith gave me a C in class…he just doesn’t like girls and thinks girls are dumb.” Ok, so the objective fact is that she got a C. But is the reason she got a C really b/c her teacher is discriminating against girls? Is there any other proof for this claim? Or could she have gotten a C b/c she didn’t do the work, didn’t study for tests and was consistently late for class?
What’s wrong with the thinking here is that just b/c the person feels like they were mistreated, or they really WERE mistreated, it doesn’t mean the person who mistreated them was doing so out of a certain prejudice. There would have to be actual proof of them saying or doing or somehow indicating that they do indeed have a prejudice to make it true. You’ve probably heard the phrase “victim mindset” before. This mindset happens to people when they start to see themselves as constantly being on the receiving end of mistreatment due to a prejudice, and they’ll begin to “see” that specific mistreatment even in places where it doesn’t exist.
I have seen this Victim Fallacy happen with people who are friends of mine. They are black and tend to feel that if they’re in an environment with mostly white people that every look they get is b/c they’re black. For instance, let’s say we walk into a restaurant and most of the people in this restaurant are white…if someone turns & looks at them, they’ll assume that the only reason the person turned & looked at them is because they’re black & that the person was thinking racist thoughts about them. They don’t allow that there could have been some other reason for the person to turn & look, like maybe they felt a blast of cold air hit them when the door opened & they looked to make sure the door didn’t remain open! Who knows? The reality is, we really don’t know, but not everything that happens is b/c you’re being mistreated or is the result of prejudice.
Now, in their defense, a lot of times, the reason people fall prey to this fallacy is because of a history of mistreatment towards certain groups of people. And sometimes, they could have good reason to be wary of prejudiced mistreatment. However, that doesn’t mean it’s always true or a correct assumption. We have to work at asking ourselves if there is actual evidence of prejudiced mistreatment and not just assume it’s there.
Question to ask yourself: “Is it really true that I/they were being mistreated because of prejudice or could there be another explanation?” *repeat*
Ok, guys, that’s it for today.
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
